Stranger Danger
by ophelia.snow
Summary: It all started with a seemingly innocent encounter at a Muggle coffee shop down the street. Little did they know, things were about to take a darker turn soon after that.
1. Make that Two

**Written for -** The Sims 3 Progression Challange

 **Trait -** Friendly

* * *

The place smelt heavily of newly bought leather, soya milk and Lemon Pledge, but all was repressed by the delicious scent of crushed coffee beans. Lydia took great pleasure in just standing there, right in front of the ordering booth with a growing number of people behind her, just appreciating the sweet odour of the brand new coffee shop down the street fondling her lungs.

"Hey?" interrupted the inconsiderate woman behind the desk with 'Coffee Cup Café' written across her chest. "Would you like to order now, young lady?"

Lydia staggered. What came out of the woman's mouth was seemingly polite, but there was a very rude, rushed undertone to her words. "Yeah, sure." Lydia said, hiding her displeasure as she was way too _friendly_ at heart to start an argument with the staff. "Can I have a… um, medium sized pumpkin-spiced latte please?"

"Make that two." said someone behind Lydia. She turned around to find a tall, slender boy with fair skin and messy, raven black hair studying her with his hazel eyes behind his glasses.

Lydia tried hard to not show how shocked she felt on the inside; what could a stranger possibly want with her?!


	2. Family Matters

**Written for -** The Sims 3 Progression Challange

 **Trait -** Family-Orientated

* * *

Lydia made sure that she only stared up at the man behind her, smiling into her face, for no longer than 3 seconds. Staring down at her fingers, she reassured herself that the man just happened to have the same order in mind as Lydia, and just to make things easier for himself and the rude lady, he decided to jump in. Of course, it had nothing to do with Lydia personally!

After shaking her head, she picked up her order and moved along to the far end of the shop to find a spot to sit and enjoy her caffeine privately. Just as she had laid eyes upon what she regarded as the perfect place, her steps came to a halt by a brisk tap on the back.

As expected, it was no other than the tall stranger man.

"Sorry, Miss," he said politer than Lydia could ever imagine. "But if you keep avoiding me your whole family is going to be brutally murdered in about… twenty-four hours."

The hot drink that was carefully wrapped with tissue paper slipped through Lydia's trembling fingers with ease and spilled all over the wooden floor and her trousers, but she cared not. The one thing that mattered to her the most, _her family_ , was in grave danger. She knew because the man who had just approached her had the most serious and grim looking face she had ever seen.

What the hell was going on?!


	3. Breaking the Rules

**Written for -** The Sims 3 Progression Challange

 **Trait -** Workaholic

* * *

"So… What you are telling me is that there's this Dark Guy with special powers who… who can… use these drumstick things to produce spells; the ones like in children's story books?"

"Except he produces green light –" the stranger who had introduced himself as James responded.

"– which can instantly stop people's heart." Lydia interrupted hastily. "Yeah, I think I get it."

It had taken her approximately 30 seconds of uncomfortable silence to absorb everything James had said about the Wizarding World, much quicker than he had expected. Of course, Lydia would not have believed him if he hadn't had used the _Scourgify_ spell before her eyes to clean up the mess she had made with her spilled latte.

"To sum up, there is a secret world which exists unbeknownst to the general public… apart from the very few like the Prime Minister…"

James nodded. "Yeah."

"And you are a part of it?"

"Yeah."

"And at the moment, hell broke loose in your world and it can affect mine?" Lydia asked anxiously.

"It will." James said strongly.

"They're after my family?"

"Yes."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

At that moment, Lydia asked the last thing James would have expected her to.

"There must be some sort of rule of secrecy in your world. I mean, otherwise everyone would know about you guys. Are you breaking any rules telling me this right now?" she questioned.

James stared into her face with a puzzled expression. "That should be the least of your concerns at the moment."

"And yet it's not. Will you get into any trouble?"

"A lot of trouble." James said quickly, and continued without giving her a chance to object. "But it's my job as an Auror – sorry, think of it like a police officer – to protect innocent people from harm and stop the bad guys, no matter at what cost."

Lydia smiled appreciatively. She also realised a young waitress was close by, cleaning empty tables far too slowly to be her usual cleaning habit, so she dropped her tone to a level only James could hear.

"Look, as a _workaholic_ myself, I can understand what it's like to be… dedicated to workplace ethos. But it just seems very unlikely that someone would get themselves into immense trouble to save a few people they don't even know. Forgive me for asking you this, but how do I know that I can trust you?"

A heavy silence conquered the two, stretching between them with anticipation, where Lydia wondered how she could remain so calm when so much was at stake and James thought through his next few steps before taking real action.

Then, he stood up and offered the auburn girl his left hand.

"Follow me?"

It wasn't a request, nor a rude command. It was, in all truthfulness, nothing but a mere plea.


	4. Doppelgänger

**Written for -** The Sims 3 Progression Challange

 **Trait -** Genius

* * *

Lydia had no idea why James had brought her to the deserted alleyway, no idea why he had introduced her to Lily Evans, no idea why she decided to follow him there at all…

Her first thought when she laid her eyes upon Lily Evans was about how much they looked alike. It was almost as if she was staring into a mirror. They both had curls of waist-length, auburn hair gracefully covering their bare, pale shoulders, with piercing emerald green eyes illuminating their faces. The most prominent difference between the two, perhaps, was their height, where Lydia was maybe a couple of fingers shorter than Lily. Her nose was also slightly more small and curved.

Her second thought after looking at Lily was that she was so obviously, so inevitably pregnant.

"You found her, then?" Lily asked James after placing a small, protective peck on his lips once all the necessary introductions had been made.

James shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, it wasn't hard." he stated. "I mean, when Albus said 'she resembles much our very own Miss Evans', I wasn't expecting her to be the spitting image of you, love, of course not. But one glance in that small café and I knew Lydia Evans had to be her. She's as pretty and _clever_ as you; guessed about the Statue of Secrecy and everything!"

"How… enchanting." murmured Lily with an unenthusiastic tone, sternly eyeing her copy on legs.

"Um, excuse me?" interrupted Lydia politely. She did not believe she could keep her mouth shut for any time longer than she had already done. "I'm sorry, but my name is Lydia O'Brian. Not Evans. Maybe you have the wrong person here?"

The newly formed silence between the three silhouettes standing in the middle of the deserted alleyway grew as Lily bit her lower lip and James scratched his head, both uncertain of how to best address Lydia's question. Not long after that, another figure, unfamiliar to Lydia, with dark, ruffled hair and bright grey eyes emerged out of nowhere, holding a shiny, sleek cloak in both hands. Lydia, who was too sure the man hadn't been there three seconds ago, momentarily screamed at the top of her lungs with shock and fear at his unexpected apprearance from nothingness.

"So?" Sirius Black addressed his two pals without feeling the need to respond to the Muggle girl's bewildered reaction. "You want to tell her that her whole life has been a lie, or shall I?"


	5. Reality

**Written for -** The Sims 3 Progression Challange

 **Trait -** Ambitious

* * *

Lydia had heard everything James, Lily and Sirius had to say. Everything, from how for the past 18 years she had been living in a well-fabricated lie, how it was necessary that she never knew the truth, how her family wasn't _really_ her family, how wizards existed and how she related to them. She heard all of it, but understood none.

"Sorry," she said, cutting off whomever was speaking at the time. "But right now, all I care about is the safety of my family, and they are as _real_ as I am, so can we talk about that instead please?"

"Honey, how real do you think you are?" asked Sirius sardonically, looking down on her. She was nothing but a little fool in his opinion, who, unfortunately, was way too important to ignore and could definitely change the whole outcome of the First Wizarding War according to Albus Dumbledore. And even Sirius had to admit the fact that the man generally knew what he was talking about when it came to foreseeing stuff.

James spoke up quickly. "That's enough, Sirius. From what I understand, Lydia is a smart, _ambitious_ young lady who's going to have to deal with a lot of crap from now on, so she won't be needing any more from you."

"What crap?" Lydia intended to ask, but was cut off mid-sentence by a slightly flushed and upset-looking Lily Evans.


	6. Guess What?

"James, _honey_ ," she said with an unnecessarily strong emphasis on the latter word. "I think I'm on the verge of starving to death. Could you please, possibly, go get me something to eat?

"I could just Accio some –" he began his suggestion.

"No!" Lily objected almost at once. "You know that's stealing, you know I'm against that. I gave you about 30 quid this morning so I reckon that to be enough for some chocolate croissants from that coffee place you brought… lovely Lydia from."

"Yeah," Lydia said, oblivious to her hostile tone. "I think they were about 7 quid each, so you should be able to get about four of them. That should be enough for you Lily."

Annoyed immensely, Lily flipped her hair. "What makes you think that I can eat 4 giant croissants on my own?!"

"Oh gosh, no!" Taken aback, Lydia blinked a few times. She was being hugely misunderstood. "I'm sorry if I offended you Lily! I only thought… I mean… I only suggested that amount because… you know… hunger is not good when you're pregnant!"

"PREGNANT?" exclaimed three voices all at once, shocked.

 _Whoops_. Now it was Lydia's turn to explain things, so it seemed.


End file.
